Sonny Gray helps A’s beat Seattle; Oakland has 59 wins at break

Emerging from their Felix-Iwakuma funk, the A’s used their usual first-half formula to cram another win onto their record before the All-Star break.

Solid starting pitching, some all-around contributions and a homer added up to a 4-1 victory that prevented a Seattle sweep. Oakland has a team-record 59 wins at the break, the most in the majors since Detroit had 59 at the break in 2006.

Oakland Athletics v Seattle Mariners

Sonny Gray pitches in the eighth inning against the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field on July 13. The Athletics defeated the Mariners 4-1. (Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

At 59-36, the A’s have the best record in baseball and they’re off to their best start after 95 games since 1990 (60-15). And this is a team that lost two starting pitchers, Jarrod Parker and A.J. Griffin, before the season started.

“We’ll take it,” manager Bob Melvin said. “It’s fair to say at the start of spring training you would be very happy with this.”

Young ace Sonny Gray worked 7 2/3 innings Sunday and allowed six hits and two walks while striking out five.

“That was terrific,” Melvin said. “We needed a win today, obviously. We’ve been having trouble scoring some runs, we got beat down by two pretty good pitchers. … So I’m sure he went out there knowing he’d have to be pretty stingy with the runs and he was absolutely that.”

Over his final three starts before the break, Gray gave up just three runs, two earned, in 21 2/3 innings, and he has a four-game winning streak. Lifetime against Seattle, Gray is 4-0 with a 1.10 ERA in five starts.

“We’ve leaned on him about as hard as you can lean on a young pitcher since the time he got here,” Melvin said. “He really wanted to go out and give us that type of effort today so we could have a good feeling going into the break.”

Gray is 10-3 and All-Star Scott Kazmir is 11-3. This is the first time Oakland has two starters each with 10 wins at the break since 1990, when Bob Welch had 13 wins and Dave Stewart 11.

“I knew coming out for this game I had nine and I knew it would be cool to get 10 before the All-Star break,” Gray said. “I’ve never done it before, obviously. I knew it would be No. 10 but more importantly I knew if I won, the team won a really big game today.”

Brandon Moss, who homered on Saturday to deny Hisashi Iwakuma a shutout (and who also nearly hit a ball out with a shattered bat that game), hit a long drive foul down the first-base line in the fourth – then kept it fair in the sixth, a solo homer to right. Nick Punto added a solo shot in the ninth, his second of the season, for the final margin.

Moss has 21 homers, most on the team, and he has hit 35 homers since the 2013 All-Star break, tied with his favorite player, Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton, for second most in the majors in that span. Edwin Encarnacion of the Blue Jays has 37. Moss’ 21 homers are the most before the break by an Oakland hitter since Jason Giambi hit 22 in 2000.

When the Mariners took the lead in the first, it appeared as if it might be the same script as the first two games, when Felix Hernandez and Iwakuma beat the A’s. But in the fifth, Jed Lowrie – heating up after a mostly slow first half – doubled with one out and with two outs, Chris Young walked Andy Parrino. Craig Gentry, 0 for his previous 11, knocked a single to center to drive in Lowrie. Lowrie is batting .429 during his nine-game hitting streak.